Napis (Jan 2018)
Bolesław Prus odzwierciedlony w swoich rzeczach. Spis pamiątek po pisarzu w przekazie Oktawii Głowackiej i Feliksa Araszkiewicza
Abstract
In 1923 to 1924, Oktawia Głowacka donated to libraries and museums the inheritance, as well as materials and personal items, of her late husband known as Bolesław Prus. Those which survived can serve as a valuable source of knowledge on his life and work. Amidst the manuscripts and typescripts, there are not only the first versions of works, or the writer’s notes (among others, the notebooks documenting his particular writing process). There are also the notes of his wife, who arranged the materials from the home archive of the Głowackis. A List of Keepsakes of the Late Aleksander Głowacki ‘Bolesław Prus’ handwritten by Oktawia, also made it there (it is currently located in the Collection of Iconography and Photography at the National Museum in Warsaw). One part of the list is a register of Items [Prus would keep on him, which contains important information about the everyday reality, habits and passions of the writer – such as his fascination with the camera and photography, the velocipede, or the typewriter. ‘Things should be looked at as elements of a picture’, and in this case, it is the picture of the life and work of the author of The Doll. Juxtaposing two differing versions of the inventory of the author’s relics – the earlier, handwritten one prepared by Oktawia Głowacka and the later, printed version by Feliks Araszkiewicz – offers a unique possibility to present a more complete and more genuine reality of a man reflected in his things.
